REVIEW: British Lion at John Watling's Distillery

Rum and Rock are perfect partners

British Lion at John Watling's Distillery, Wednesday, April 8

There was an extreme weather warning over The Bahamas yesterday - but after the rain stopped, it was British Lion that brought the thunder. 

After the storm of the afternoon, it was a beautiful sunset over the Buena Vista estate that played host to British Lion. John Watling's Distillery is a great venue - here, the stage was set up in the rear courtyard, putting the audience up close and personal with the band. 

The thing with rock stars and their other bands is that you can't get away without mentioning the band with all the Platinum records. This is Steve Harris' other band, but the band you've heard mentioned more often is Iron Maiden. 

That's both recognition of the band's pedigree and a bit of a disservice to the band itself - which is a different soldier than Iron Maiden's trooper, more rock with a fistful of great melodies than Maiden's metal. 

First up came the support act, Tony Moore's Awake, himself a former member of Iron Maiden in the 1970s. Well worth listening to himself, he took to the stage solo to share a very personal story, about his bond with his mother, and his role as a carer for her after she was diagnosed with dementia. It was touching and honest, and very much deserves recognition. 

British Lion kicked things up a gear when they took the stage. Many years ago, at one of my favourite ever gigs, I was standing next to the venue owner when one particular artist took to the stage and after just moments, he turned round to me and said "You can tell when it's real quality" with a big smile. The same here. You can tell when it's real quality. 

British Lion set the tone from the off. It didn't matter that these were performers who have played all kinds of sizes of venue, they were here to entertain and to urge the crowd to make some noise, with expletives and all. 

This was a band that knows its stuff, driving rhythm section and charismatic front man urging the crowd on. They came, they sang, they conquered. 

As a venue, it was great - the rum was flowing, the music was pumping and the crowd were here for it. If this is a sign of more things to come, all the better for The Bahamas to have another music venue, and broadening the range of music on offer. That can only be good for everyone. 

Eventually, British Lion pounded its last thunder, and just in time for the first drops of returning rain. The crowd went home, happy with the night. British Lion? They may just have opened the door to a whole lot more. A great night. 

STEPHEN HUNT

REVIEW: Iconique ballet at Island House

Ballet Iconique at Island House

 

There was magic in the air at Island House last weekend.

Iconique returned to The Bahamas for its third year with a change of venue, relocating from Old Fort Bay Club, and it found a welcome home at Island House.

The show was divided into three segments, each preceded by a course of a gourmet meal.

The Covent Garden Dance Company has made it a mission to bring some of the world’s best dancers to The Bahamas – and has delivered on that promise.

More than that, it has also made sure this is not just about bringing foreign talent, but giving a platform to Bahamians as well.

That was showcased best by one remarkable piece during the evening, when a stage full of Bahamian talent brought gasps from the audience.

Bahamian dancers Courtney Celeste Fox and Vernal Adderley were joined by local dance students for a piece titled In Time (Part II). The choreography was fabulous, with performers creating a rippling wave of movement across the stage under the starry night sky. Costume design was also by a Bahamian, Phylicia Ellis, while the astonishing soprano voice of Bahamian Stanesha Deligence filled the air. It was breathtaking – and all the more when Courtney Celeste Fox informed the audience that the students had only had three rehearsals to perfect the dance.

Elsewhere, there was a mix of old and new – classic dances such as The Firebird, with music by Stravinksy, or the sensual passion of No Man’s Land, set to music by Liszt.

Perhaps most eye-catching was a pair of pieces by dancers Hannah Ekholm and Faye Stoeser, with influences from the underground club scene. The pair performed some astonishingly intricate dancing, where their bodies interlocked with each other in ways that a fellow diner said looked like someone assembling a Rubik’s Cube. It was part dance, part puzzle, and showed the range of performances on stage.

Throughout the show, the dancers wrote poetry with their bodies. It was a remarkable show – a step up again from last year’s performances.

Iconique has quickly become an extraordinary part of our cultural landscape, complete with building connections to local students and the new CAPAS performing arts school. Long may it continue.

BOOK REVIEW: The Gulp, by Alan Baxter; One Word Kill, by Mark Lawrence; Notna, by JD Cunegan

It's book review time again, and time to catch up with antipodean horror, globe-trotting mythological thriller and D&D-inspired adventure.

The Gulp, by Alan Baxter

Some horrors start off with creeping dread and mystery. This one sits down across the table from you, flashes a devilish grin, slides you a beer and asks what's the worst possible thing you can imagine. Then chuckles and says that's all you've got? Let me tell you a story. 

Five stories, in fact. Each a slice of life and death in the remote Australian community of Gulpepper, nicknamed The Gulp. It's the kind of town you might find in The Twilight Zone if Clive Barker was mayor. Everything's a little twisted, a little wrong, a little off-kilter. 

The five stories seem separate at first - how a trucker finds his safe world slipping away from him, how some teenagers deal with the weird things happening to their mother, how a group of backpackers fall under the spell of a local rock band... but the pieces start to make up a bigger picture. Something strange is always going on in The Gulp, but now... well, strange is stacking up on strange. 

Alan Baxter does a great job of inviting you into a weird part of the world, starting with uncomfortable before plunging into the grotesque and the ominous. There's clearly more to come, but building slowly, steadily. Each of these stories is a crack of distant thunder, warning that the storm is coming nearer, nearer. I'm looking forward to when it arrives. 

AI Rating: 5/5

The Gulp is available on Amazon.

One Word Kill, by Mark Lawrence

I should be a sucker for this book. It's about a teenage boy who is both a genius... and who is dying. He's also a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons, and in a time when at last roleplaying games are kind of cool, and affectionately regarded in hit shows such as Stranger Things, more fiction that treats gaming as a delight rather than a menace ought to be welcome. 

As a long-time gamer myself... let's not talk about how many years exactly as that makes me feel old... that really ought to hit the mark for me. 

But it didn't, sadly. Things set up as major hurdles are resolved so easily you wonder why they were part of the book to begin with, and the plot itself, which tosses in time travel on top, manages to be both predictable and contradicting its own rules. 

This feels like a missed opportunity, there's a great chance to tell a good story here, but it falls flat and ends up feeling by-the-numbers. Not quite a critical miss, but I won't be giving the rest of the series a roll of the dice. 

AI Rating: 2/5

One Word Kill is an Editor's Pick on Amazon - so mileage may vary. 

Notna, by JD Cunegan

Globe-trotting, myth-shaking, world-threatening thriller your kind of thing? Step right up, for this thrill-ride from JD Cunegan.

Look, there's one name I'm going to mention right from the off. Though I hesitate to do so because it's an author name that a lot of people have a bit of scorn for. Dan Brown. But, you know what? I've read a bunch of Dan Brown stuff and what's good about it is the way he conjures up these threats from across history and binds it into a story that hops from one location to another around the world. He has his failings elsewhere, sure, but that's what works - and it's also what works here. 

Here, an archaeologist is on the trail of the Gem of Notna, whose power can be both a threat to the world and... perhaps, in the right hands... its redemption.

This is the first book I've read by Cunegan, and his writing is fun, brisk and keeps the plot moving along, revealing a story set in the modern day but stretching back to the dawn of time. Ancient beings and gods are woven throughout, but overall it becomes a very personal tale as our heroes learn the power that they're dealing with, and try to work out how they can use it to save the day, and the world. 

A good, fun read. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Notna is available on Amazon.

Five things I liked about Zack Snyder's Justice League - and five things I didn't

With much hype and acclaim, Zack Snyder's Justice League has landed over at HBO Max. It's four hours, four super-long hours - more than double the running time of the version released in cinemas by director Joss Whedon. 

I had mixed feelings about them recutting that original - not least because the Whedon version was just... average at best? In fact, I found it a bit dull. So what would the new version bring? Well, for me there was good... and there was bad. So here's five things I liked... before I talk about five things I didn't. Inevitably, spoilers ahead, so stop now if you want to stay spoiler-free.

The good

1 Cyborg

The character that gains the most from the recut is definitely Cyborg. His story takes up a good chunk of the new recut. We see his relationship with his mother, his damaged relationship with his father and the journey that takes. We see him becoming Cyborg and getting used to his powers. All of that was sidelined in the original version - about which much has been written, including about Whedon's relationship with his actors. The luxury of having four hours to tell the story instead of two means that the Cyborg story really gets room to breathe - and, bonus, it's really good. I especially liked the scenes with his mother, with her showing up to see his football games... as she sits next to an empty seat where his father failed to show up because he was at work. 

I don't think it all works - his role in the final battle had me raising an eyebrow thinking it was a bit forced, but nonetheless having the extra story let it build up to that payoff, and was one of the better additions to the movie. 

2. Flash and Iris

Now this scene I can completely see why it was cut from the previous version - but it's very sweet and I'm glad it got to be included with the extra time. It's a fairly simple rescue scene - Iris saved from a crashing car by Barry in between him applying for a job as a dogsitter. It's a nice first meeting... but as it isn't followed up anywhere in this movie, you can see why it got snipped previously. 

3. The final battle

The final battle is much smoother in the Snyder cut than in the Whedon. It feels better organised and it's easier to follow what the character goals are - plus there's more tension in there. Then, at the last... the team fails. They lose. And Barry's talk of time being a bit weird when he gets near the speed of light pays off, and he's able to roll back the couple of seconds it took so they could win instead. It's hard for these moments to pay off but for a moment... just a moment, there really was a sense of oh no, they've blown it! 

Better yet, no Russian family as in the first one - where apparently the only family living within miles of Steppenwolf's base kept taking up screen time. I know that was to show the threat to humans in the midst of this conflict about superhumans, but it really didn't work and just left me cheering on the parademons to get rid of them. Where the demons failed, Snyder succeeded. 

4 They didn't do this... 

5 Knightmare future

I'm slightly mixed on this one, because if they don't follow it up and do more with it then it's just a fairly pointless tease - but the glimpse of the Knightmare future with the team made up of villains and heroes working together (albeit alongside the rather wooden Atlantean Mera) was really intriguing. I'd love to see more of it. No idea if we will. If we don't, then what was the purpose?

The bad

1 Slooooooowwwww moooooooooooottioooooon

Look, I know it's a Zack Snyder style but gosh there was way too much slow motion. I can completely understand it at times but wow it felt as if you could lop half an hour off the run time just by running things at normal speed. 

Perhaps the most annoying one was the slow mo on Lois Lane getting a coffee from a coffee shop and walking past a Daily Planet van. There are moments I can say ok, yeah, that's a cool moment to slow down and swoop in on, but... coffee? Terribly indulgent.

2 Slowest news day ever

That slow mo Daily Planet van? The driver tosses out a stack of newspapers with... this! The slowest news day ever at the Daily Planet, with a story that would never make the front page of a village weekly paper. 

Seriously, Superman dead, aliens having attacked the world, super beings starting to make their presence more and more known, half of Metropolis still rebuilding and... they splash a triple deck headline on a bank looking for an architect? I was thinking as I was watching what on earth is that foreshadowing, but it turns out it's just a reference to The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand, which Snyder has an interest in making as an entirely separate movie. If you want a definition of how indulgent this cut is, then it's right here. 

3 Oh, those slowed down classic pop songs

Again, this is a Snyder tic, but gosh it was all a bit obvious. He has a habit of taking moments and slowing them down and setting them to a maudlin version of an old pop song. They're usually great versions but they really slow down the movie. I can forgive the version lovingly looking at Jason Momoa because everyone who wants a bit of that eye candy deserves some. The music for the Iris West rescue scene - a version of the magnificent Song to the Siren (a Jeff Buckley song, but I'm a fan of the This Mortal Coil cover) - just doesn't fit the scene, for me. Another part of the cut that came across as an indulgence, style wise, rather than just getting on with telling the story. 

Speaking of things that could have happily been left on the cutting room floor, when Batman tracks down Aquaman (and frankly part of his journey could have been trimmed too), the villagers sing a song of farewell to Aquaman which at the end, I just shrugged and said ok, that happened, and on with the movie. 

4 Martha Manhunter

There's a nice scene between Martha and Lois where they get to sit and chat... and then as Martha goes out, it turns out she was Martian Manhunter all along. Which completely undermined what had gone before in the chat (for me). I literally laughed at the screen and said that's nonsense. 

5 The scream heard around the world

And the bit I most disliked for last. The opening of the movie sees Superman's death scream reverberate around the world and even underwater, reaching each of the mother boxes and... activating them? I mean, aside from how anyone in his proximity isn't permanently deaf, why would that activate the boxes other than just to link it thematically? It seemed silly to me. Also, the action picks up quite quickly with the attack on the Amazons (and is it just me or did they get the rough end of the R rating with the greater level of violence seemingly chiefly directed at them with greater splashes of blood). But that left me wondering about how much time was passing before the rest of the movie picks up. Lois, it seems, has been grieving for some time - Barry too for his idol, so Superman has clearly been gone for a while. Batman's search for allies also seems to be going on at length - so how does that fit in with everything being activated by Superman's scream? It seemed an idea to link everything up that then just didn't really connect with everything that followed. And following the sound waves around the world just had me saying "Really?" to the screen. 

My verdict

In the end, I think the whole was much better than the previous cut - but there were things I missed from the Whedon cut too. I liked, for example, the lasso scene where Aquaman sat on Wonder Woman's lasso and couldn't help but tell the truth, a scene that was entirely made by Jason Momoa. 

I think this version fixed bits that just didn't work - such as that Russian family, for example - and removed bits like the Flash lying on Wonder Woman's chest. On the other hand, it had issues of its own, like that newspaper indulgence or the excessive slow motion. 

Against that, my eldest child just finished watching it and says it was 10/10 and ranks just behind Infinity War in his favourite superhero movies. So what do I know?

I do think it'd be an interesting challenge for would-be filmmakers and film critics to take that Snyder cut and figure out where to take out two hours to end up with a two-hour movie for the theatrical release. Would Cyborg's story make your version left on the cutting room floor? Would the Knightmare future survive? What would be the first thing you'd cut to get down to the two-hour mark?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the movie - it's been an interesting experience to compare two versions of the same work. Toodle pip!

Welcome back to Apex Magazine

 

Check out that lovely cover by Vicki be Wicked

APEX magazine is back! 

For those unfamiliar with the magazine, it has been on hiatus recently. It's a magazine of science fiction, fantasy and all those words that slip in between those categories - and it's been missed. 

I got a chance to read the new issue ahead of its recent relaunch - it's out today - and it's been like meeting an old friend again. 

Editor Jason Sizemore talks in the introduction about the return, the reasons for the hiatus, and the new schedule. It'll now be a bi-monthly magazine. It includes essays, author interviews, an interview with cover artist Vicki Be Wicked, and short fiction reviews by AC Wise. 

Most importantly, it is brimful of stories. Six new stories, two reprints - plus a flash fiction competition winner. Like any mix of stories, readers will enjoy some more than others, and I'm no different. 

Fittingly for our pandemic era, Elana Gomel's The Niddah was one of the stand-outs. Elana conjures up a world where a future pandemic has led to the reinvention of society, with a new virus bringing about radical changes in physiology for people - but only when an infected person comes into contact with the blood of another. Given how strained social conventions are today even in the face of a less radical pandemic, it is easy to believe this reimagined world in Gomel's story, and even less surprising that the worse end of the deal falls to women. Already in our COVID-19 world, women have been bearing the brunt economically more than men - and that becomes ever more so in this world where one drop of blood could kill or transform, with women forced to hide away during their period to avoid contact with others. That's the set up - but the story itself is one of finding choices in a world which takes them away, as the lead character, Gemma, discovers the mother she thought she'd lost might still be alive. I'll say no more, but Gomel has created a world akin to a Jeff VanderMeer novel - that leaves you longing to explore more. 

Root Rot, by Fargo Tbakhi, is the opening story in the collection - and a challenging one in that the lead character is so hard to like. He's a screw-up of screw-ups, whose messed up relationships, his life, his associates, and is on a downward spiral of drinking and dying. It's set in a future exploring what might happen to the people of Palestine, and one particular person, who spent his days digging in Martian soil in the hope of making a life with his lover only to end up washed up and paying literally in blood to be able to cross city sections, and trying to pay off the bar bill he's run up beyond his ability to settle. It's a brutal world, with not much in the way of hope. But there's some, and that's something to cling to in order to make up for a legacy of screw-ups. It's no easy tale to read, but then it's no easy life to have lived. 

Mr Death made me cry. It's a story by Alix E Harrow about a reaper. Less grim, more respectful. Sam Grayson died in his 40s after losing his own son in an accident. Trouble is, when he died, he found his work wasn't over. He was given the job of junior reaper. And now he has another job to do - overseeing the passing of a two-year-old boy. I was so on edge reading this that I almost didn't dare turn the page. It's not a horror, it's a story of compassion and, well, love. But the imminent nature of this little baby boy's death is so unnerving that you treasure every action, every moment. I'll say no more because it really deserves to be read. But gosh, I salute the author for a truly wonderful tale. 

The magazine is worth the purchase price for Alix Harrow's story alone - but there are also stories by PH Lee, Cassandra Khaw, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, Tonya Liburd, LH Moore, and a festive flash fiction piece by Charles Payseur. 

Welcome back, Apex, we sure missed you. 

For more about the magazine, check out: https://apex-magazine.com/

Five books I read in 2020 that I loved

 It's been, to say the least, a strange year. Between work and supervising the kids as they studied at home, there's been precious little time to sit down and read. Still, to my surprise, I hit my Goodreads reading challenge goal - and there really were some gems that I enjoyed through the year. And goodness knows, if these were able to transport me away from the world of 2020, then they might just bring you joy too. So without further ado, here's five books I loved this year, starting - as it happens - with my latest read. 

A Christmas Twist, by Brent A Harris

Do you ever read something and think to yourself gosh, I wish I was as clever as this? That's how I felt reading A Christmas Twist. It's a sequel to A Twist In Time, in which Brent A Harris took the character of Oliver Twist and reinvented him as a steampunk hero in his adult years, travelling through time with the aid of a mysterious pocket watch. With this sequel, he bounds into Scrooge territory, as the secrets of the watch and the nature of those ghosts of Christmas past, present and future - time traveller themselves of a fashion - are revealed to be intertwined. 

Layer after layer of the story unfolds as Oliver travels through time alongside Scrooge to meet those spirits - discovering alternate forms of Oliver himself, from a suave swordsman to a clockwork cowboy. Whose journey is this? Scrooge's, or Oliver's? And what will it mean for him in the end?

At every turn, just when you think you know where things are going, things take another... well, Twist. Then it all comes together at the end so neatly and delicately it seems like a finely-honed watch mechanism. Perhaps that one in Oliver's hand, tick-tick-ticking time away. 

There are surprises, there are punch-the-air moments, and there is a reminder, in this year of all years, that while we cannot control all things in our world, we must never stop trying to find the best outcome. 

AI Rating: 5/5

A Christmas Twist is available on Amazon

Beneath The Rising, by Premee Mohamed

Who knew Lovecraftian horror could be such a joy?

Premee Mohamed has gleefully snatched up two fistfuls of Cthulhu Mythos, dropped it into the modern day and proceeded to ruin the lives of her two lead characters with it. Possibly while giggling manically.

But while she creates a canvas from that mythos, it's the story of those characters that will draw you in. Johnny and Nick are two survivors of a childhood tragedy that bound them together. Johnny is the superstar, a genius inventor with money and talent. Nick is her devoted friend, trailing in her wake, struggling to manage work shifts and helping his family while she soars ahead like a shooting star.

Things change, though, when Johnny needs help. A door has opened, and she might be to blame, and things that should not be are creeping through it.

The real delight of this book is the relationship between the two lead characters. Johnny is a star, and Nick is locked in her orbit, drawn to her and in love with her in so many ways, but more than that a friend. The two have their shorthand ways of talking, the banter that goes with people who have been friends forever, even as they struggle to deal with things at the heart of their relationship that they cannot tell one another. They are broken in so many ways, and lean on one another to get through because trying to fix things would hurt even more.

All this continues as the world starts to unravel - and it turns out that two people who have nothing in the world except one another might be the world's only hope for survival. There are secrets revealed, bad bargains, and the kind of regrets that leave the taste of ashes in the mouth.

A fantastic book. I heartily recommend it. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Beneath The Rising is available on Amazon

The Ascension Machine, by Rob Edwards

This has been a real joy to read. Take a hero in the vein of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat, give him a Scooby gang in the vein of Joss Whedon's Buffy or Firefly crews - and give it all a superhero spin.
This is a really fun adventure - starting off with a drifter, thief and misfit who comes to be known as Grey, our hero. He gets a most unusual offer to impersonate a rich man who doesn't want to take up the place at a superhero academy his connected family has arranged for him - and so Grey finds himself heading to a school full of aliens, with only the thinnest of lies to protect him.
All this makes for some soaring space adventure - but there's also a depth here. Grey, a loner for so long, unexpectedly finds friendship. One of the things about the academy is that people find their perfectly ordinary abilities on their own worlds might just make them superheroes elsewhere - even if their ability is as mundane as the ability to be a good farmer. For Grey, he suddenly finds himself unexpectedly with a home - and, perhaps, with the chance to be a hero himself.
Until it all comes crashing down.
By turns witty and thoughtful, Rob Edwards creates a universe that's a delight to visit, and to which I hope we shall return. 

AI Rating 5/5

The Ascension Machine is available on Amazon

Becoming Superman, by J Michael Straczynski

Joe Straczynski is the creator of Babylon 5. I mean, you may know him from many other things. You may know him as the pen behind Sense8 on Netflix. You might know him from The Changeling, the Angelina Jolie movie directed by Clint Eastwood. Or Jeremiah. Or Spider-Man comics. Or... well, you get the idea. He's been involved in writing for TV and movies for far longer than many writers manage to stay in the ring. This is his autobiography - and while you might think it's a happy trip through the successes he's had over the years, it's far from that. Indeed, it's far more intimate and personal than that. This is the story of the young boy Joseph, and his abusive father, who tormented his whole family. It is a story that tells of Nazi sympathising. Of murder. Of a boy trying to grow up sane with a family life that was far from stable, moving from town to town and skipping out whenever people showed up to collect money. Sure, it tells how he went through the early cycle of writing stories that turned out to be not so great, then writing more, and more, and banging his head against the door of rejection. There's the glimmers of encouragement, such as when the stranger who read his work at a school event and said there was promise in there turned out to be Rod Serling. But this is a story of a boy who fought to be a man free of his father, of a man who fought to get his stories accepted, and a TV writer who fought against the restraints imposed by executives all too often - to the point of his agent's exasperation. He describes one moment in his youth - in which he gets the shit kicked out of him by a bunch of kids only to stand up and taunt them so they came back and did it again as, in retrospect, being the perfect preparation for becoming a TV writer. There's a great deal of insight in here to the projects he worked on - from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon, to Murder She Wrote. As a Babylon 5 fan, I particularly hung on the material to do with the show - even the saddest notes with the death of some of the cast members over the year. I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Peter Jurasik from the show, and the poignancy of those moments came across in two voices mourning old friends, the writer and the narrator. More than anything, though, this book tells the story of Mr Straczynski's relationship with his father. So determined was he not to be like his father, his life in some ways seem to have been defined by purposely choosing to be the thing his father was not, the shape of his life being dictated by non-conformity to the monster he grew up with. It's a brutal story to tell. There are no end of truly shocking moments. And yet, despite what he had to endure, he ultimately defined himself, who he would be, and rose to the success his father said he wouldn't reach. Is it inspirational? I'm not sure that's the word. That's like those moments when you see what people have gone through and pat them on the head and call them an inspiration. That's not quite right. No, but it is admirable. With a stubborn streak a mile wide, he managed to achieve things that had never been done before. And he did it with a sharp wit and a ready pen. This book has been nominated for a Hugo Award. It certainly deserves it.  AI Rating: 5/5 Becoming Superman is available on Amazon The Books of Earthsea, by Ursula K Le Guin I'll freely admit this is a re-read rather than a new read - but in such a wonderful new edition. Illustrated throughout by Charles Vess, this is a magical book to open.  I remember reading an article by Ursula K Le Guin about how unhappy she had been over the years with the covers to her Earthsea books. I owned one cover she particularly hated with its pale, white version of Ged, who is anything but that in her books.  So it is a treat to see the world conjured up anew through the art of Mr Vess. A single image from him would be a joy, but this is a book full of his work.  I have loved the Earthsea saga since I was a kid. And now, with this book, I have a version of it that my own kids can fall in love with. It is, quite simply, magnificent.  AI Rating: 5/5 The Books of Earthsea can be be bought on Amazon Oh, and while you're here... let me give you a gift. The first two books of Tales From Alternate Earths are FREE until December 20. Pick them up at the links below:  mybook.to/alternate mybook.to/alternateearths

BOOK REVIEW: Tempest Blades - The Withered King, by Ricardo Victoria

One of the delights of writing is the authors you work alongside - and especially seeing their work take shape over time. I've been delighted to see Ricardo Victoria make progress toward his first novel's publication - and it's coming out soon. I had the chance to read an advance review copy of the novel - and here's my review. Oh, and I should point out - I'm in the book! One of the characters is named after me. So, be advised that my character is of course brilliant...

This is not something you've read before. 

Tempest Blades - The Withered King is the first novel from Ricardo Victoria, and like just about everything he writes, this is bursting with ideas. 

To try to contain Ricardo's ideas is like trying to contain jelly with elastic bands. He's exuberant, he's bubbly - and he's bristling with imagination. 

Let me tell you what Tempest Blades is. It's a fantasy epic. No, wait, it's an anime-style adventure. Hang on, no, it's a science fiction escapade on another world. But hold up, here are roots of Ricardo's Mexican heritage. And Celtic myth. And a cartoon team-up of mighty heroes. It is a steampunk extravaganza with a soaring airship. It is science, and magic, and the science that underpins magic. It is tragic, it is witty. It is each of these things. It is all of these things. 

This is not something you've read before. 

It all begins with an ancient battle, before a flash-forward in time to a mystery of a missing professor. One by one, the team of heroes assemble as the mystery reveals a greater danger. An ancient danger. A danger that the seemingly immortal Fionn had thought long gone. 

Ricardo really handles the build-up of this team well - it reads like episodes of a series, each of which adds an extra layer to what has gone before. Before you know it, you have come to know a whole team of heroes, and care for each of them. Just in time for their world to start falling apart. 

So hop aboard. It's a science fantasy epic that bursts with originality. It is new, it is fresh, and it makes the imagination soar.

In short, this is not something you've read before. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Tempest Blades is available at various outlets - including Amazon here.

BOOK REVIEW: Legacy of Pandora by Eric Michael Craig; Somebody Save Me! A Superhero Anthology; In Numina, by Assaph Mehr; Souls and Hallows, by S R Algernon; Sparkly Badgers' Christmas Anthology; Spider-Gwen Volume 1: Greater Power

Having just completed my review of the Best Five Books of 2018, it's time for a new year and a new round of books!

I'm taking part in the Goodreads Challenge again - and people can follow along with my year's reading here. This year is off to a strong start too! There are two books in this latest round of reviews that I'm already pegging as strong contenders for the best of 2019! If this is how the year's reading is starting, long may it continue.

Without further ado, on to the reviews!

Legacy of Pandora: Shan Takhu Legacy, Book One, by Eric Michael Craig

I really enjoyed the Atlas and the Winds series from this author, so it's no surprise to me that this is a great slice of science fiction.
The heart of the story lies in two mysteries - one for the crew of the ice prospector ship Jakob Waltz as they encounter an anomaly that could threaten their lives, and the other for Fleet Chancellor Kathryn Roja, who uncovers a plot to undermine the government and perhaps tilt the solar system into chaos.
Both mysteries are deftly handled, both the hard sci-fi as the ship's crew must fend for themselves to unravel a puzzle that leaves their ship battered and their bodies bruised and worse - and the hard politics as Roja tries to work out who is behind a scheme that could see the construction of a secret fleet of ships.
The author deftly moves the pieces of the puzzle into place - just in time for all hell to break loose!
I really enjoyed this book - Craig has a real talent for not just explaining scientific detail well but to use the science to advance the story itself. This is rollicking, knock-it-out-of-the-park sci-fi, an adventure that sizzles across the stars. It's the kind of writing that stands comparison to Larry Niven or Greg Bear - and would be a great read for fans of the Expanse series.
This is the start of a series, and I'm truly hooked - count me in for the next books!

AI Rating: 5/5

Legacy of Pandora is available on Amazon here.

Somebody Save Me! A Superhero Anthology

As a big fan of the Wild Cards series from George R R Martin and friends, this collection intrigued me. There's something delightful about exploring superhero stories in other media beyond comic books and movies - and it gives an opportunity to really get under the capes of those out to save the day.
Unlike Wild Cards, there's no consistent setting here - it's a range of short stories from different authors, each in their own settings, and some hit the mark, others less so.
I enjoyed Rob Edwards' exploration of the source of powers in his world and both it and Noel Martinez and Christopher J Valin's depiction of the legacy of a hero certainly do show us some of the secret identity behind a hero.
Others feel a little lighter, perhaps fragmentary because of being glimpses of individual authors' larger universes or stories they're exploring elsewhere.
All in all, it's a light read, one that will be ideal to wile away a journey, while dreaming of saving the world.

AI Rating: 3/5

Somebody Save Me is available on Amazon here. 

In Numina, by Assaph Mehr

Well, goshdarn it. You know that moment when you read an author new to you and they absolutely hook you from beginning to end and you close the book and say to yourself "Hey, I've got a new favourite author"? This book was that moment for me. 

Assaph Mehr tells a story of mystery and magic in ancient Rome. Think Jim Butcher's Dresden Files taken back a couple of millenia. Felix the Fox, a skullduggerous scallywag who alternates between being a troubleshooter and getting into trouble with women, is commissioned to solve a little property problem. Namely, his employer's cheaper properties are having a problem with keeping their tenants, what with the ghosts and terrors and deaths and whatnot. 

So begins Felix's adventure which sees him chart a course through the supernatural and political worlds, and between the affections of his investigative companion and her mother. It's not easy being a fox. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - it really hit its stride in a middle section that was utterly gripping. The cast of characters are great too - I really rooted for even minor characters. I even teared up over one character's reaction late in the book. Sniff. Honestly, I prefer it too to the Dresden Files, as it treats its female characters much better. 

A fast-paced thrill of a read, this is absolutely worth adding to your bookshelf. Enjoy! 

AI Rating: 5/5

In Numina is available on Amazon here.

Souls And Hallows, by S R Algernon

Gosh, this is a hefty collection of short stories. S R Algernon presents a collection of flash fiction and short stories. I'll confess, I wish the longer stories came further towards the front of the collection - we start with a run of flash fiction that slip away before you can get a good grip on them. Enjoyable - but that's the nature of flash fiction, it's like a flash of a shooting star across the sky and then it's gone. 

It's the story Rosetta that first grabbed me with both hands, pushed me into a chair and told me to listen up - it's a tale of linguistics and, perhaps, ancient hands guiding our world. It's deftly, delicately handled, and sumptuous in its ending. 

After that, I was hooked, be it to visits to The World's Fair, or dalliances with distant artificial intelligences; tales of dragons or tales of the stars. I did feel that the shorter flashes were a bit too light perhaps, but there is weight elsewhere. 

It's perhaps fitting that, for me, Rosetta formed the key to it all.

AI Rating: 4/5

Souls and Hallows is available on Amazon here.

Sparkly Badgers' Christmas Anthology

I picked this up over the Christmas holiday - and it's a sweet little anthology of festive tales, written to raise money for charity. 

With just enough stories to cover 12 days of Christmas with one more for luck, it makes a good family read, touching on a reimagined Christmas Carol with badgers, to Santa visiting mermaids and a scientific theory behind how Santa really gets round all those houses at night. 

It's fun, it's light, and it makes for a pleasant way to share Christmas. 

AI Rating: 4/5

The Sparkly Badgers' Christmas Anthology is available here.

Comic books and graphic novels

This year, I'm going to aim to include in each review section a review of a comic or graphic novel. It might be a classic, it might be brand new - but we start with...

Spider-Gwen Volume 1: Greater Power, by Jason Latour, Robbie Rodriguez, Chris Visions, Rico Renzi and Clayton Cowles

I swing in and out of the Marvel comics these days, so Spider-Gwen had passed me by a little - so it was a nice treat to see the first volume available for free on Prime Reading to get a taste. 

Essentially a way of reframing the Spider-Man origin story with a different perspective, we see the Gwen Stacy of a different dimension take on the powers of Spider-Man, with the world upended in different ways in her dimension. 

She fights beside a female Captain America, Peter Parker succumbs to the potent power of the Lizard injections, and Frank Castle becomes the cop on the trail of the spider vigilante. It's a nice twist on the regular Marvel 616 universe - where Spider-Gwen is a sometime visitor too. 

Without preaching, without heavy-handed storytelling, we get a strong female line-up of characters and an interesting tale of secrets, regrets and friendship. It's good stuff. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Spider-Gwen is available on Amazon here.

BOOK REVIEWS: Road Kills, by Isaac Thorne; Abandoned, by Tim Walker; The Ballad of Halo Jones, by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson; Generational, by Norman Turrell; Light's Rise, by Yvette Bostic; The Lift; Darkly Dreaming, by Chloe Hammond

Welcome, readers! Our latest selection of reviews covers Roman history and roaming killers, soaring space ships and snarky space heroines, angelic warriors and, perhaps, a devilish girl. But first, let's hit the road, with Isaac Thorne. 

Road Kills, by Isaac Thorne

I had the pleasure some time back of reading and reviewing Diggum, a short story by Isaac Thorne about a gravedigger with murderous intent - and promised myself I'd come back for more of his work.
Road Kills is a collection of his short stories, neatly ordered with a theme of tales that could take place out on the road, where the flash of headlights up ahead could bring a welcoming face or a dangerous stranger.
Some tales are linked - such as the saga of the pretty girl who snaps and goes on a murder spree through several of the stories here - others are standalone.
Particularly creepy was Bedside Manner, telling the story of a little boy haunted by the literal ghost of his father's past mistakes, full of the cloying fear that comes with a childhood bedroom plunged into darkness and parents absolutely failing to realise that the monster really is in the closet.
Hoppers is a revenge tale... about bunnies. For Buffy fans, maybe Anya's fears were well founded.
And sometimes the road is less travelled, such as the detour into space for Safety First, a story of first contact about to go horribly, horribly wrong.
Diggum reappears here too in two forms, both the original short story and a screenplay version. It's the best of the tales to be found in this collection, still as creepy as the graveyards its words frequent, but Bedside Manner is a strong challenger. Not all tales quite caught me - I wasn't keen on the social media-inspired Dislike, and the trio of stories about the killer girl Tiffany weren't my bag. But that's okay, any short story collection will have tales you love more than others.
Sometimes, you catch a single work by a writer and investigating further disappoints - that's far from the case here. I want more.

AI Rating: 4/5

Road Kills is available on Amazon here.

Abandoned, by Tim Walker

Blimey, this is thorough in its exploration of British history! Much credit to author Tim Walker for a well researched story looking at the time of the Roman withdrawal from Britain - and the consequences it means for both sides involved.
Abandoned looks at the early part of the Dark Ages, and you can see the amount of effort the author has put in to ensuring accuracy.
The story hops through several of the characters involved in the era - which while helping to cover the scope of events of the time does have a tendency to dilute how we feel about the central characters. Also, I felt it could have used, to quote Elvis, a little less conversation, a little more action. The early part is slow but picks up as sides move into conflict with one another.
Stick with it and you'll find yourself drawn into the details of the battle, as the cut and thrust moves beyond the shaping of empires to the visceral desire to protect family.
In the end, this is a love letter to history, and a credit to the author's passion for his subject.

AI Rating: 4/5

Abandoned is available on Amazon here.

The Ballad of Halo Jones, by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson

I'm not even going to pretend this is a new book to me. I read this first of all issue by issue back when it first appeared in 2000AD. Those issues were much treasured, and well thumbed - so when the complete collection appeared on Kindle, I wasn't hard to convince.
Halo Jones is the heroine we need. Caught in a dead-end world with a family of best fit rather than genetic history, she's trapped. Bored. Almost numbed by an environment that stifles innovation, crushes emotion, drowns out aspiration in a mire of vid soap operas and at its worst leaves hollowed out drum-drum-drummers tuning out the world to listen to a non-stop beat.
But Halo Jones is different. Halo Jones wants out.
It's glorious to revisit the story after all this time, seeing the sub-plots as they play out, noticing the groundwork being laid for tragedy.
Through it all, Halo shines. It's a darn shame that Halo hasn't soared beyond the boundaries of the comic pages - barring for a title appearance in a Transvision Vamp track. She's kickass without being obviously badass. She's a feminist hero in a time when they were few and far between. She's the girl who got out.
The complete collection features three books in total - and they are left poised waiting... waiting... waiting for more. They'll never come now, I'm sure. Moore and Gibson have spent too many years since they left Halo hanging, and rights squabbles seem to have abandoned her on the shores of a distant planet.
But it's brilliant. She's one of the finest comic book characters ever created, and I've loved every moment of being able to hang out with Halo Jones once more.

AI Rating: 5/5

The Ballad of Halo Jones is available on Amazon here.

Light's Rise, by Yvette Bostic

Recently, I read the prequel to the Light in the Darkness series - of which Light's Rise is book one, and it was so entertaining I wanted to read more.
It's an innovative series - starting in the Napoleonic War when a young Austrian soldier finds himself confronted by literal demons. Not inner demons, but the human-consuming kind, and is soon enlisted in a war very different from the one he enlisted for.
He becomes part of a somewhat-superhuman team doing battle with demons across continents and across decades as the underworld creatures seek to subvert the world locked in warfare for their own ends.
The soldier, Darian, finds himself imbued with his own powers which he can use in the battle, as he and his comrades strive to save humanity.
The story is Christian-themed, but not heavily so. The hints of good v evil in the story are subtle and not preaching, and the whole thing reads as a light adventure - I could see it doing awfully well as a manga.
Dashing along at a fair clip, it's a real page-turner - and the finale sets up the next step in the series with... well, that would be saying, wouldn't it?

AI Rating: 4/5

Light's Rise is available on Amazon here.

Generational, by Norman Turrell

Norman Turrell is a thoughtful writer - and Generational is a tale that asks questions of our future.
Set aboard a colony ship orbiting Earth and preparing for its voyage, the story dwells less on the nuts and bolts of the science of the ship, and more on the social science of the humans aboard it.
An early, off-kilter encounter introduces lead character Leyton to a young woman whose role is, as she puts it, a breeder. Or more colourfully a "ghetto-ho" or "ship's bike". She seems unstable, and Leyton is whisked away from her - an early sign that not all is well aboard the ship.
Leyton becomes the explorer guiding the reader as the slightly twisted society on board is revealed - freed from the structures of society down below, the ship has developed its own paths, becoming possibly a powder keg ready to blow... or the only hope of Earth's survival.
It's an unusual story - and I think of that as a good thing. What shape will our future be, what route will our philosophies take us? These are the questions at the heart of Generational - a tale that asks the unexpected.

AI Rating: 4/5

Generational is available on Amazon here.

Darkly Dreaming, by Chloe Hammond

This is an unusual vampire novel. Two divorcees (or near-divorcees) are wrestling with the problems of mid-life, jettisoning their unfulfilling husbands and struggling with work and the prospect of trying to have children - when an encounter leaves them forever changed. They become vampires. Beautiful, ravishing vampires.
They proceed to try to make sense of their lives as they chart their unlife. Their vampire existence brings new passion, occasional accidental lesbianism, and a desire for growth. Eat, Prey, Love, you might say.
I must say this book is not for me - I feel I'm very much not the target audience. It's mildly racy and it's deeply wish fulfillment at work, but if that's what appeals to you, you might want to dip into the first pages preview.
I'm giving it three stars - but not being the intended reader for this, I wouldn't take that as a criticism. I like my vampires darker and more dangerous, whereas with this, being undead has never been so life-affirming.

AI Rating: 3/5

Darkly Dreaming is available on Amazon here.

The Lift, 9 Stories of Transformation

The Lift started life as a spin-off from the Wicked Library podcast - which I've reviewed elsewhere on the blog - but now it has sprung into life as a collection of short stories. Volume one of such in fact, with the tantalising promise of further volumes. 

There is more than a theme at work here, with each story revolving around the character of Victoria, a little girl who plays a music box and offers people a ride in her lift to places which... well, which vary according to the passenger. 

In Brothers' Keeper, for example, two bickering brothers relive the spectres of their carnival past, while creator Daniel Foytik takes a swing at Trump in Buying America. Human Monsters, meanwhile, ventures into an apocalyptic landscape. The settings are abundant, Victoria is the constant. 

The highlight stories for me were Meg Hafdahl's The Barren, a hard-hitting contemplation on infertility and the choices we make; the splendid Cake, by Nelson W Pyles, with that conversation we can never have, with one we have lost - even harder, with one we lost long before their death to the bitter split of a family; and The Final One, by Charles Rakiecz, a time-twisting tale of cause and effect in the crucial moments of personal history. 

Much love has also been poured into the anthology in terms of its presentation - artwork of the music box, poetry and sketches, and even the sheet music for the theme tunes of Victoria, and the sound of the music box itself. 

For that extra love, the book earns an extra star in my ratings - bringing it to a hearty five out of five. 

AI Rating: 5/5

The Lift is available on Amazon here.

You can hear the podcast here.